Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Army
Softball Holds Off Army Twice for Doubleheader Sweep on Saturday
4/18/2015 9:37:00 PM | Softball
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Bucknell softball ran its winning streak to eight games with a doubleheader sweep at Patriot League foe Army West Point on Saturday. The Bison improved to 27-17 overall and 6-5 in the conference with 3-2 and 4-1 victories.
The Black Knights dropped to 19-21-1 and 8-6 in the league. The teams will wrap up the series with a game at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Bison can move into third place with a win.
Game 1 – Bucknell 3, Army 2
Bucknell jumped out to a 3-0 lead and then hung on for the one-run win. Dana Nielsen pitched six innings in the win, upping her record to 10-4 on the season while lowering her ERA to 3.14.
Nielsen cruised through the first six innings, giving up three hits and no runs. Army finally got to her with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Amanda Fazio came on in relief with a tough task ahead of her. Bucknell led 3-2, but Army had runners on second and third with no outs. Fazio struck out the first batter she faced before issuing an intentional walk to the Black Knights' top hitter, Kasey McCravey, to load the bases. The next batter hit a grounder to shortstop Cydnee Sanders, who fired home for the force out. Fazio notched the save when she forced another groundout to Sanders to end the game.
Bucknell broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the fourth inning. Sanders reached on an error to third base and Kristen Zahn followed with a two-run home run, her sixth of the season.
The Bison added what turned out to be an important insurance run in the sixth inning. Sanders led off with a single, stole second, and advanced to third on a groundout by Zahn. She scored on an RBI groundout by Meghan Kovac.
Leadoff batter Jacee Almond paced Bucknell's eight-hit attack with three singles. Zahn added a single to her home run, while Christina Martinez and Carolyn Wan had one single apiece.
Game 2 – Bucknell 4, Army 1
Fazio recorded her 14th win of the season, and Jacee Almond increased her hitting streak to 10 games as the Bison topped the Black Knights 4-1 in the second game.
Almond had two singles in the contest, which saw Bucknell finish with eight hits for the second time in as many games. The Bison also took advantage of eight walks issued by the Army pitcher.
Fazio also had two hits for Bucknell, while Erin Cox doubled for the team's lone hit for extra bases. Sanders, Kovac and Chaylen Andolino contributed one single each.
Bucknell went up 2-0 in the top of the first inning thanks to Cox's two-run double. Army scored one in the bottom of the first, but the Bison got it back in the second inning when Sanders walked with the bases loaded. Sanders added an RBI single in the top of the sixth that put the Bison up 4-1.
Army threatened in its final at-bat for the second straight game. The Black Knights loaded the bases with one out, but Kovac snared a line drive and turned it into an unassisted double play at third base to end the game.
